


Maul & Skywalker: Lords of the Sith

by ToodleBot



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Canon Divergence - Star Wars: A New Hope, Darth, Darth Maul Lives, Darth Maul Needs a Hug, Empire, Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Luke Skywalker - Freeform, Post-Star Wars: Rebels, Rebels, References to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), Sith, Sith Luke Skywalker, Sith Training, Star Wars: Original Trilogy Era, Star Wars: Rebels References, TCW, Tatooine (Star Wars), dark side, maul - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26721418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToodleBot/pseuds/ToodleBot
Summary: What if, in their fateful duel on Tatooine,  it was Maul who killed Old Ben Kenobi? What if Maul found a young Luke Skywalker and took him as his apprentice? To finally reclaim his destiny as a Lord of the Sith and stand against The Empire, to retake his criminal alliance? What if Luke had been trained by a dark lord for years and Maul had more time to discover lost secrets?Maul will train the most powerful Sith Lord who has ever lived, the discovery sparking long lost ambition and hope, perhaps now he can succeed where time and time again he failed, a true apprentice after all these years.Can Darth Maul and Darth Starkiller stand to overthrow Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, to claim the culmination of The Grand Plan, and restore The One True Line of Bane?
Comments: 19
Kudos: 43





	1. Twin Suns

**Part 1: Twin Suns**

**1 BBY.**

**Tatooine.**

**Dusk.**

Old rivals, silent and staring. Humming blue and crimson. Cold desert winds.

After all these years, Maul had found Kenobi. And all it took was the weak willed Ezra Bridger. The powerful young Jedi had since fled into the dark dunes, but Maul cared not anymore of him and his potential. He had found Kenobi. And that was all that mattered.

But why would Kenobi be _here?_ A man of his delusion should be fighting against The Empire and the Sith overlords like the fool he was. Could Kenobi truly be so desperate to save his own life he would hide in the desert like a womp-rat?

No. Kenobi was too idealistic by half. He had to be here for some reason. A mission worthy of him, in both importance and principle. Maul had to know.

"Protecting something?" Maul tried, eyes sharpening.

Hard silence. He had gotten close.

"Protecting...some _one_?"

Kenobi's reaction proved him true.

The old fool adjusted from a simple neutral form into his classic defensive stance, two fingers outstretched. Maul prepared for an attack.

Eyes reading each other and feet shifting in the sand, they waited for each other to make the first move. Kenobi looked Maul up and down, adjusting into a familiar stance.

Maul knew it from somewhere, somewhere far gone. A dark time.

Naboo. Where Kenobi had stolen his destiny from him.

Maul realized the rest all at once. Qui-Gon Jin. Kenobi's pathetic master who he killed all those years ago. Maul would have laughed if he didn't want to give the game up. Kenobi knew full well what he was doing, this was more than just nostalgia.

At first, Maul felt the urge to strike at him as he did his master back then. To drive the hilt of his lightsaber into Kenobi's old and withered face, and to impale him in turn. His rage, his lust for blood and vengeance, his _hate_ for Kenobi almost consumed him to fall into Kenobi's trap.

But Maul knew better now.

Maul lunged to Kenobi, seemingly falling into his trap. Two strikes with their lightsabers, an explosion of blue and red, and Maul went to smash his hilt into Kenobi's chin, Kenobi swinging down his lightsaber as he knew he would...

...And Maul twisted his lightsaber at the last moment, shifting it in his hands, using one of his blades to swat away Kenobi's lightsaber, making the old fool stumble. Using the opposite blade, Maul used Kenobi's staggered opening to do what he had wanted to do for thirty years, and drove his lightsaber blade deep into Kenobi's chest.

A quick inward gasp. Eyes lock.

Kenobi's face is painted with surprise and shock, Maul's with joy.

Then a heartbeat passes.

Their expressions change. The glee leaves Maul's expression, shifting into confusion. Kenobi features shift down.

The lightsaber slips from Kenobi's fingers. Maul turns his own blades off.

Falling into the sand, Kenobi oozes his life out as Maul stands triumphant above him.

"Is he The Chosen One?" Maul asked downwards.

Kenobi is silent, his face painted with failure.

"He _is_ , then." Maul affirmed to himself, proud.

"Maul." Kenobi said, hand outstretched in vain. "We are not... what happened to us. I know this path was not your choosing."

Kenobi was cut off. "You have no idea of what you speak." Maul deflected.

"Maul... Please. Leave the boy." Kenobi was sincere. "You have gained...what you _desired_." Kenobi shivered the words out.

"I will train him into the most powerful Sith the galaxy has ever known. Goodbye, _Kenobi_." Maul glared down at him, a twisted smile on his face.

"I...pity...you." Kenobi said with his last breath.

And with that, the triumph in Maul's heart turned to bitter ash in his throat. For a moment, Maul looked over his old rival's dying body with a tinge of loss. But it passed as soon as it came. A heartbeat passed, and what was once Kenobi disappeared, and all that remained was his tattered old robe.

Maul was taken aback, stepping back a foot, looking around him, before letting his hatred bring comfort back to him.

"Jedi trick." Maul spat in contempt.

He had waited three decades for this ever since Kenobi took everything from him on Naboo. Ever since his life was taken from him, Maul stumbled throughout the galaxy to carve new meaning and purpose for himself.

Kinship, with Savage and his Night Mother, power with Mandalore and Crimson Dawn, to regain his place as Sith to stand against Sidious with Tano and Bridger. But all of this, like everything in his life, was stolen from him.

Everything gone, the only purpose that had left him alive was to kill Kenobi. Or to be killed by him. To give him the death that should've been his on Naboo, to save him from those decades of suffering and failure.

And now Kenobi was gone.

Maul felt empty. But only for a moment.

The fires of ambition and purpose finally reignited. He had not only completed his true goal, but Maul's true purpose unfolded before him as a result.

Once he had foresaken the Sith and his title of _Darth_ , scorning a lifetime of failure. But it was all a test, he needed to rid himself of the shackles of the Sith to find himself closer than he had ever been to becoming the Dark Lord he was always meant to become.

He should have known, distracted by all those meaningless plots and lives for years. All Maul had to do was listen to The Force, to channel The Dark Side and let It guide him: let the hate guide him towards his true desire, his true purpose: and it did, and now his reward revealed itself, finally, in the end.

The Chosen One.

Maul would take the Jedi's mythical idol and corrupt and train him into the greatest Sith Lord the galaxy has ever known, and reclaim the destiny that long awaited him.

How _shortsighted,_ how _blind_ and _foolish_ he had been: to have gone to the ancient Sith Temple on Malachor and gaze into the holocrons and to think that he was brought here just for simple, cathartic vengeance?

Now that Kenobi was gone, Maul could bask in the silence, and let The Force guide him. Maul could sense him, _feel_ him. The energy. The _power_.

So after Maul took Kenobi's lightsaber as a trophy, he let the power guide him across the dunes, getting stronger and stronger, and he could barely contain his excitement. A hovel in the sand, some small obscure moisture farm.

The Chosen One was close.

Shrouded in darkness, Maul lumbered through the homestead. He could hear the mumbles of conversation in the next room.

Maul fingers wrapped tighter and tighter around his lightsaber.

In the next room, the light was on. He studied the trio, hunger in his eyes.

Some desolate farmer man and woman, eating with an older boy. Seventeen, eighteen, it made no matter. Not just _a_ boy, _the_ boy. The family was laughing, smiling. They had no idea what would come upon them.

Maul stepped out of the shadows, hard yellow eyes meeting their's, horned head casting a menacing silhouette. A crimson demon.

The joy dropped from their faces, the woman grabbing the boy, and the man standing upright, guarding the boy.

"Get behind me." The farmer said coldly.

"For all the good it will do you." Maul teased.

"Uncle Owen, who is _he_?" The boy cried out.

"Old Ben warned us this day may come, just stay calm. He'll be here soon."

Maul laughed cruelly, before holding out his hand, displaying Kenobi's lightsaber.

"I am afraid," Maul said with amusement in his voice, "This is all that is left of Kenobi."

The farmer went silent and pale for a moment, before his final moments.

"Beru, take him and run, _now!_ " The farmer snapped, the woman grabbing the boy.

In a flash, the farmer lunged with his fists at Maul in a surprisingly valiant, albeit futile, attempt to stop Maul.

A swing of his lightsaber, flash of crimson, a woman's scream, another swing. Silence.

The farmers were dead.

"Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru!"

Falling before them, crying, Maul could feel the suffering, the anger, the hate, the _fear_ bubble up in the boy all in once, and poured out, The Force pushing Maul savagely back. But nothing more.

The boy looked down at his hands, surprised at his own strength, and so was Maul. He had known the boy would be powerful, but that had taken him unaware from one so...simple looking.

Turning off his lightsaber, Maul laughed bitterly to himself, walking towards the boy. "Good. _Good_."

This boy truly was powerful in The Force.

Taking his chance, the boy turned and sprinted out from the homestead, stumbling over himself and nearly falling as Maul meticulously followed him.

Maul followed him out of the homestead and back onto the sands, before the boy fell into a dune outright. Maul tired of the chase.

"There is no escape." Maul warned.

Covered in sand, the boy looked up, eyes raw and red from tears. "Aren't you going to kill _me_ too?"

"That would not be in either of our interests." Maul replied.

"...Why?" The boy asked, a mix of disbelief and fear on his face.

"For you are destined to join me." Maul said, as if that spoke for itself.

"I'll _never_ join you." He spat out bitterly.

Maul smiled, spreading his hands. "Unfortunately for you, there is no one else to turn to."

He grabbed the boy's chin, harshly jerking his head left and right to inspect him. The setting twin suns shone golden light across his face.

Fair skin. Blue eyes. Blonde locks of hair.

"What is your name, boy?"

The boy stared defiantly at him, Maul bared his teeth at him and tightened his grip, pulling his head upwards.

He had fire in him, covered and coated by all that fear.

"What is your _name_?" Maul growled.

After a moment of silence, the boy looked down and finally responded.

"Luke." He said. "Luke Skywalker."


	2. The Smuggler's Moon

**Part 2: The Smuggler's Moon**

**1 BBY.**

**Hutt Space.**

" _Join me or die_." Was the ultimatum Maul had given young Skywalker on Tatooine.

Resistant at first, Skywalker soon realized that when faced with the Dathomiri Sith Lord or the fate of his family the answer was clear. The meager sandstone homestead was left a smoking ruin, Maul saw it destroyed as a clear message to his new apprentice. There was nothing left for him on Tatooine.

Nothing left for either of them, now that Kenobi was gone.

Since then, they had been humming through hyperspace in a stolen smuggler ship. Skywalker had refused to speak so far, seemingly content to pout the entire trip.

More the better, the trip had given Maul welcomed time to reflect on the new perspective The Force had granted him on Tatooine. Silent as he was, Skywalker was practically _screaming_ in The Force, each heartbeat radiating raw, delicious hate towards Maul. Kenobi was wise to hide him in such an obscure and remote world as Tatooine, and no doubt the old fool tried his best to mask his presence with his own fading powers. But even between all of that, the young man could not be hidden, his mere life breaking out and reaching through The Force.

And the timing could not have been better, to save Maul from settling on Ezra Bridger, already corrupted by Jedi idealism and while gifted with The Force it was nothing like this. Skywalker would be the ultimate prize: a clean slate, raw power in The Force unlike anything Maul had ever lived to see. No wonder why Kenobi referred to him as The Chosen One, that old Jedi myth.

He had heard only one other referred to as The Chosen One: the insufferable Ahsoka Tano had called Anakin Skywalker The Chosen One, all those years ago on Mandalore. But surely one as powerful as Luke Skywalker needed to be The Chosen One, as Kenobi believed.

Which it had, of course, struck Maul that Kenobi had made it his mission to guard this Luke, who bore the same name as his famed partner in The Clone Wars. _Skywalker_. The name synonymous with Anakin Skywalker, the most famous war hero in The Galactic Republic, the one who had been groomed by his former master as his newest apprentice since he fell on Naboo. A child. No wonder Maul's once-master had been able to twist Anakin Skywalker. And what good it did him, he had been believed to have been killed with the rest of the Jedi.

Or so it had been said.

Maul could also not help but _know_ his master. While he had no issue in easily _forsaking_ an apprentice, it made no sense why his apprentice would die alongside the Jedi. Perhaps Anakin Skywalker's Jedi idealism shined through in the end, for a last, foolish act of courage to stand against The Purge. But the menacing dark lord stalking the galaxy surely did not come from nowhere.

Even then, all those years ago, when he heard the name _Skywalker_ in his visions, Maul had misinterpreted. He had thought that Anakin Skywalker was his target, but the true Skywalker had been destined to be his even then.

"Tell me, boy." Maul spoke to young Skywalker. "What do you know of your father?"

That had gotten the young man's attention. As soon as he said _Father_ , the emotions lashed out in The Force so intensely Maul could almost feel it on his skin.

"Why...why do you ask?" He finally responded.

"Ah, so you speak after all." Maul teased.

Skywalker turned his head, back to pouting.

"I am simply curious who would abandon their child in a world so desolate as Tatooine."

"My father was a navigator on a spice freighter." Skywalker said defensively.

Maul couldn't help himself from laughing. "Is _that_ what Kenobi and those farmers of told you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your father was no mere navigator amongst smugglers." Maul said, remembering back years. "He was mighty in The Force and fought in The Clone Wars. You were destined to follow in the footsteps. But your family and the Jedi Kenobi were jealous and afraid of your powers, and lied to you, trapping you on Tatooine to live your life in obscurity."

Skywalker was dumbfounded, unable to speak, emotion running through his body, excitement overriding his hate and fear.

"My father fought in _The Clone War_?"

"He did." Maul said simply.

"And Kenobi? You mean Old Ben Kenobi?"

"The one and same, you fool." Maul spat in frustration.

The boy was taken aback by the flash of anger, taking a moment before asking his next question.

"He was a Jedi? Like the old heroes?"

"Jedi are hypocrites and corrupt." Maul said, voice bitter. "That much should be clear from Kenobi keeping you on Tatooine your whole life."

Skywalker restrained himself, pulling back. "My Uncle and Aunt said that my father was a navigator. Why would they lie?"

"They were _afraid_ of you, Luke." Maul leaned in.

Young Skywalker's eyes darted downward.

"...That's not true."

"Tell me, did they ever treat you _differently_ growing up?"

His silence proved Maul right.

"Tell me, _Luke_ , did you truly believe it was your destiny to live and die on Tatooine? Did you never look up to the stars and wonder if you were meant for something _greater_?"

"...I...I always wanted to see the stars." He admitted. "I just never thought it would be like...like _this_."

"I had been searching for you." Maul lied. "I had come to Tatooine to free you: free you from the lies of Kenobi, from the treachery of your family. I came to deliver you to your rightful destiny. There are those who try to take, to _steal_ your destiny from you. And they will think they have won. But I have freed you from that reality."

"And you are going to teach me about this... _force_?"

"No." Maul said coldly. "That will come in time. You must prove yourself to learn."

Silence filled the ship for a few moments, as the boy pondered everything. A sudden storm of emotion filled him, rising up quickly.

"I loved them." Skywalker blurted out suddenly. "No matter what you say. I loved them. Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen."

"I have no doubt."

"I _hate_ you."

Maul smiled. "Savor that. Hate will serve you well."

He could sense the hate twisting inside of Skywalker as he spoke.

"Reflect on these feelings, boy." Maul said. "We need to stop to refuel. Fortunately for us, the Smuggler's Moon is nearby."

**Nar Shaddaa.**

The ship opened up its gullet, Maul beginning to walk down the loading ramp before he turned to Skywalker.

"You are to stay with the ship and you will not leave."

Skywalker stared down in silence.

"Do I make myself clear?" Maul growled, baring his teeth.

"Yes."

" _Good_." Maul said, dragging the word, before turning to leave.

Nar Shaddaa. The Smuggler's Moon.

Overrun with filth and scum, countless platforms of neon splendor and cheap holograms overshadowing the gamblers, smugglers, bounty hunters and gangsters that filled the smog filled streets, cantinas and casinos of this Hutt moon. A moon so occupied with its own sin that it paid Maul, draped his shadowy hood and robes, no mind.

"Ugnaught." Maul barked to the small snouted engineer on the loading dock. "I wish to refuel my vessel." Busy with referencing some inbound invoices and inventories, the ugnaught chose to only point to the nearby depot.

The depot interior was a cramped, metal sore. Dim, cerebral light filled the small office, old holo-notices flickering rhythmically on the wall. Before Maul stood a Rodian, too old by half.

"Refueling?" The rodian asked in a gruff, phlegm voice.

"Indeed. The vessel that just arrived."

The rodian rubbed his oil stained shirt. "We can fill your tank all the way back up for say...six hundred credits outta do it."

"Of no issue." Maul pulled the credits out of his cloak. "And a hundred more to forget."

The roadian eyed The Shadow before him up and down, then shrugged, taking the credits without another thought.

"You got it, boss."

Half of Maul expected Skywalker to leave...foolishness and youth outweighing the fear of his would-be master. It turned out, it seemed, that half was correct.

Skywalker's levels of fear for Maul would be corrected in due time.

"Ugnaught." Maul barked once more. "Did you see where the human from my vessel disappeared to?"

Still fixed on the invoices and notes, the ugnaught simply pointed off to the urban hubs behind them, not deigning to look at Maul.

Looking off to the city-scape, he grimaced, it would not be so simple to find a single human in Nar Shaddaa. Thankfully for Maul, Skywalker would not get far being so unfamiliar in a simple spaceport, let alone The Smuggler's Moon. And The Force would guide him.

Would a petty Force-Sensitive have been lost to Maul, it would have been of some difficulty to parse out their presence from the ripples in The Force all others let out. But searching for Skywalker, it was searching for a raging bonfire in a city of mere candles.

Shuffling through the dense crowds, countless criminals of varying species bumped into Maul, who walked through crowd after crowd and marketplaces and alleys, letting his senses guide him through the sea of flesh and metal.

It had been many years since Maul had first stepped on Nar Shadada. He was barely Sith then, learning his first lessons of the underworld that ran through the galaxy. An auction for a Jedi Padawan drew him in, an auction that was the crossroads of the Nar Shadada criminal circuit and one of the early times Maul had dabbled in their sphere. The padawan would be the first of many Jedi to die at the hands of Maul.

Maul had learned then another of his great lessons in his life: no matter how clever he had thought himself to be, he could never hide his intentions from his master. The then-apprentice had been commanded not to go...but Maul believed himself deft enough to hunt down this Jedi, but he had learned his master knew of it, arranged it in fact. He could not hide that from his master, nor any of his other schemes. Not as his apprentice, and not as a lord. Maul had believed, for a time, he could operate during The Clone Wars without his master knowing, but that too proved him the fool, at the cost of the life of...

The memories were ash in Maul's throat, of what happened and what came after. Maul stuffed them down back deep into him, and kept it down with tendrils of hate.

And not a moment too soon to free himself of his clouded mind: Maul could feel Skywalker's presence nearby, it was near impossible to miss. A pounding heart that the mere feeling of the power within was intoxicating. He could hear sounds of violence down a nearby twisting alley, and knew that young Skywalker would no doubt have fallen into that.

Turning into the alley, a crimson protocol droid shoved its way in front of Maul.

"May I interest you in a promotional token to a night at Club Vertica?" It advertised. "Your promotional token will allow you access a single free use of any Smuggler's Luck machine. Take a night off from spice, treat yourself to something nice! Visit Club Vertica ton-"

The droid was cut off as Maul lost his patience trying to move past the pushy protocol droid, lashing out with The Force to toss it aside.

"Oh dear!" It shouted as it crumpled against the wall.

Maul entered the alley, the neon lights from overhead giving the yellow smog a glint.

"My friend doesn't like you." Maul could hear a gruff voice say ahead.

Turning the corner, Maul found his would-be apprentice, with two thuggish smugglers looming over him: a deformed human, and an aqualish. Cornered in the cramped metal alley, there was little doubt that Skywalker had given some disrespect, imagined or not, to these smugglers, which in Nar Shaddaa was a deadly offense.

"I'm sorry-" Skywalker said, backing away, and out of his depth.

"You better watch out, we're wanted men him and I. I have the death sentence in _ten_ systems. And you think you can just _bump_ into us like that without a word?"

Maul was watching on from the neon lit shadows, observing how Skywalker would respond.

"Look, I-" The boy began, before the deformed human pushed him against the wall.

" _I_ don't like you either."

The deformed human pulled a jagged knife. As the neon glinted against the blade, Skywalker shoved the smugglers and attempted to make a dash past them.

"Grab him, Ponda!" The deformed human growled.

The aqalish did just that, grabbing Skywalker with one of his strong hands.

Maul had seen enough, and the situation now bored him.

In one motion, Maul pulled out his lightsaber, igniting it as he swung it upwards, and in a crimson flash the arm that was grabbing Skywalker was cut off from the aqualish.

Letting out a deep scream, the aqualish collapsed to the ground in shock, and with the same motion Maul used the opposite end of his double-sided lightsaber to slice into the deformed human...cutting the smuggler in half from shoulder to waist.

As soon as it began, it was over. The two smugglers mutilated, Maul lit by the crimson of his lightsaber and the neon of his surroundings. Skywalker stared at him, mouth agape. Maul sensed fear, yes, but also...awe? _Envy_? Did the boy crave the power that Maul held over him?

"You disobeyed me."

Maul raised his crimson lightsaber to face Skywalker, who backed up further away.

"That was most _unwise_." Snarling, Maul backed the boy back all the way to the wall, holding the lightsaber close to Skywalker's face, painted with crimson light.

"Do you feel the warmth? What do you suppose I do, to punish you?" Maul asked.

Fear was filled in Skywalker's eyes, before darting downwards, then raising again, filled with hate and spite.

"Do what you want." Skywalker said defiantly. "You've taken everything from me anyways."

Maul could feel the hate and resolve stirring within him, there was no doubt to be found. He was impressed by his conviction, his anger. Maul backed off, turning his lightsaber off and putting it back in his cloak.

Skywalker looked at him with surprise and confusion, awaiting what happened next.

"It is clear you will do as you wish." Maul said. "Then go off on your own. I am sure you will do well, if that encounter was anything to judge. No doubt Grakkus the Hutt will find new fodder for his arena most welcome."

Skywalker was conflicted, but spoke with confidence. "I'll get by." He spat out.

"I have no doubt." Maul said, bitter sarcasm biting at Skywalker. Turning to leave the alley, Maul could sense the uncertainty in Skywalker, who had been so resolved in his fate at Maul's hands was now fretting over a thousand different ways this unknown circumstance could go. Walking away, slowly, Maul knew the last thing to fracture Skywalker's confidence, and to tempt what remained.

"Though, of course." Maul began. "Without me, you will be doomed to yet another life of obscurity, under the heel of a second Hutt world, knowing the possibility for your destiny but forever unfulfilled. And neither will you find out more about your _father_."

The leading words worked up Skywalker, but the final one stirred Skywalker into a typhoon of emotions and conflict.

"I am sure you wish to know nothing more of him, anyways." Maul said flatly, leaving Skywalker in the alley.

Maul would return to the vessel and make preparations to leave. One less confident would take Skywalker by force, but Maul knew he could not create the foundations of their relationship with pure pressing: at a certain point he would break. He had taken all other paths from Skywalker, but to truly begin the path to The Dark Side, the boy needed to embrace his temptation to follow Maul into darkness.

And Maul believed that he would, especially with the last connection young Skywalker had: his father, being held over him. But all would be revealed when he leaved this crime-ridden moon with or without Skywalker.

As he arrived back to the loading dock, Maul saw an assortment of thugs surrounding his vessel. Five, in total. A human, a rodian, two twi'leks and a quaren. Low-level gangsters, it looked like.

"I am afraid you are blocking the entrance to my vessel." Maul spoke out to them.

"Ah, so you're the one who owns this thing?" The human said, taking the lead. "Well, _I am afraid_ that you're landed in our turf without paying the landing fee."

"I knew nothing of such a fee." Maul responded coldly.

"Fake ignorance doesn't do you any favors, zabrak. Everyone knows who holds this half of Nar Shaddaa."

"And who, exactly, would that be?" Maul asked, raising an eyebrow.

" _The Crimson Dawn_." The twi'lek next to the human hissed with pride.

Maul couldn't help himself from laughing.

"One of the crazies." The rodian said.

"What's so funny?" The human asked, putting his hand on the grip of his blaster.

What was _funn_ y, as it were, was that Maul would find himself back with The Crimson Dawn, however low level, the criminal organization that he led from the shadows some years ago, before betrayal and Maul was swallowed by his obsessions. What had once influenced systems and systems and had agents within The Empire was now reduced to low level shakedowns on Nar Shaddaa. Maul found himself oddly disappointed.

"It simply amuses me how low Crimson Dawn has fallen." Maul finally responded.

The gangsters looked to each other, before pulling out their blasters.

"Listen, pal." The human leader said. "Landing fee and lets call it...a _not going to blast you to oblivion for your smart remarks_ fee. Or you're not gonna like what happens."

Maul looked from side to side, eyeing up the five in front of him.

"Oh, I think I _will_." Maul smiled, pulling out his lightsaber once more.

Igniting it, they flinched back in fear.

"Is that a _Jedi_?" One of the twi'leks asked.

Rage filled inside Maul...to be accused of being a Jedi of all things, this ignorant twi'lek would be the first to meet his fate.

"The Jedi are all dead..." The other twi'lek replied.

"They're _about_ to be." The human leader said, regaining his composition. "Now we can sell that laser sword of his off to Grakkus, that hutt is crazy about those things. Blast 'im boys!"

And with that, they let open fire with their blaster pistols, their aim and lack of coordination making it far too easy for Maul to swat the bolts away, twirling his lightsaber to meet each one as it came.

After a knocking a few into crates and boxes, Maul then redirected one such blaster bolt back into its source: the twi'lek who dared call him _Jedi_ , burning a hole through his chest and killing him instantly.

" _Brother_!" The other cried.

"Its not doing anything!" The quarren yelled.

"Just keep blasting 'im, he's gotta get tired of spinning that thing!" The human replied.

"Too true." Maul said, choosing now to reach out with The Force and grabbing the remaining twi'lek, easily throwing him off the docks and to his doom below.

The descending screams of the twi'lek filling the air, the display of The Force filled the gangsters with delicious fear, the quarren breaking off and running away. Maul would not have that: wrapping the rodian in The Force, guiding that gangster's hand in the direction of the fleeing quarren, and willed the rodian's finger to pull the trigger of his blaster, shooting the quarren in the back, killing him. Then Maul willed the rodian with some level of resistance to do the same to himself.

Looking around to see his cohorts dead and smoking, the human leader looked back to Maul, who had put his lightsaber away. Eyes filled with fear turning to purpose, the human leader raised his blaster, smiling at the prospect of shooting the unarmed shadow, before his eyes turned back to fear as Maul casually swatted the blaster bolts aside with his hand, guiding them aside to his left and to his right.

" _Who are you?_ " the human leader cursed, firing again and again fruitlessly.

Maul dropped the game, choosing now to wrap The Force around the human's throat, and pulled him into Maul's grip.

With his fingers wrapped tightly around the choking human's throat, Maul looked into his eyes with his burning yellow eyes.

"I am The Shadow Lord," Maul snarled, "And I have _returned_. I would hope Crimson Dawn had not forgotten their master." He tossed the human aside behind him, towards the urban hubs. "Now leave me, and count yourself fortunate I have some level of nostalgia. Go and tell of the fate that awaits those who turn against their lord."

With the opportunity given, the human turned and sprinted back to the urban hubs of Nar Shaddaa. No doubt he would immediately return to whatever haven of his he had, and spread the news of the shadowy killer who cut down his friends without mercy. Some would not believe him, others wouldn't know what it meant, but the right ones would know. Maul was not gone.

He did not want a notorious reputation, but if his Master had taught him one thing about The Grand Plan, was that half-true rumors and the seeds of terror were a most useful tool. Maul expected a handful of crime lords who once had been under his command to learn of this, that their Lord was still in the shadows, a perfect seed to plant for when he was done with more important plans, he may reclaim his mantle. And by the time any news reached The Empire, _if_ it did, they would be nothing but quarter-truths that would have them waste resources on a thousand false leads.

Maul looked to his side, the ugnaught unmoved.

"I suppose this will be of no trouble?" Maul asked.

The ugnaught nodded, uninterested in Maul.

"And my vessel's fuel?"

The ugnaught tapped his tablet, confirming its fulfilment, before giving another nod.

Maul rolled his eyes and shook his head, that ugnaught's indifference to him poking his pride.

The ship refueled, nothing stopped Maul from finishing the journey home he had begun from Tatooine. He began walking up the loading ramp and into his ship, before stopping.

Maul could feel the powerful presence behind him. Smiling, Maul had known he won.

He turned, eyeing Skywalker silently. Huffing from sprinting there, his words were caught in his throat as he noticed the corpses around him.

"Is there something you want?" Maul asked.

Skywalker looked him up and down, even then uncertain, before standing up straight.

"I want to know more." Skywalker said. "About my destiny. About my father. Even if...even if I need to go with... _you_."

" _Good_." Maul said coldly. "Then come."

"This doesn't change anything." The boy said, bitterly.

"So I hoped." Maul replied.

Skywalker walked up the ramp of the ship, each step heavier than the last.

"So then...where...where are we going now?"

Maul smiled. " _Dathomir_."


	3. One To Crave It

** Part 3: One To Crave It **

**1 BBY.**

**Dathomir.**

**Twilight.**

Dathomir was a bleeding sore amongst the stars, and the shuttle lowering to the surface brought Maul closer to the only home that he ever had. A home that was taken from him, time and time again.

The flight from Nar Shaddaa had been largely uneventful, but Maul soon noticed a shift in young Skywalker’s demeanor. Since he had chosen to join Maul on his journey, he had been less withdrawn, albeit more anxious by half. The boy was good at restraining his feelings, but once he let it crack, Skywalker was powerless to keep it from pouring out. 

Skywalker would break before he would bend, then the real work could begin.

Maul had to stop himself from working his mind towards Nar Shadada and beyond, already calculating the time it would take to establish himself as the power in The Crimson Dawn and his power base at large. Of the contacts he would need to reach out to, the figures who needed to be eliminated, the most valuable assets against The Empire. But those were concerns of a Sith Master, and he could not be a master commanding his powerbase against his foes before he had claimed his apprentice.

“Come.” Maul spoke to Skywalker as the landing ramp lowered. “We have arrived.”

As the ship opened up to the world, the boy squinted his eyes, Maul had forgotten the crimson sun of Dathomir took some accustoming to.

“Is...is  _ this _ it?” Skywalker asked.

“It is.” Maul said flatly, taking in Dathomir once again. 

“This world is a hellscape.” The boy spat as they walked onto the surface from the ship. The grotesque and warped terrain and flora no doubt made it seem a forsaken ruin to his would-be apprentice. He could not even know the truth of it. 

“It was where I was born.” Maul said, half-wistfully. “This is my home.” 

“Oh.” Skywalker said.

Not that he had ever been able to truly live in it as such. As a babe he was stolen away by his master...and the years under him that followed would make him dream for his home, whatever it was like. It wasn’t until Savage brought him back to his Mother Talzin that he learned what his home was, who his  _ family _ was. But all of that was gone now, the few warm memories turning cold inside of him. The Nightsisters had been destroyed, and Mother Talzin with them, and his lost brother Savage before them. For years then, Maul had spent on Dathomir in oppressive solitude, in a mutual cycle of hate against the ones that had destroyed everything that had once made Dathomir a home. In that way, Dathomir  _ was _ the only family he had left. And together, they would have revenge.

Maul retook himself, turning his hot yellow eyes back upon Skywalker, his melancholy turning to passionate anticipation.

“And it will be were you will be reborn.” Maul promised.

Young Skywalker shifted, as if a chill went through him.

“Do I have a choice?” He said contemptuously.

“I suspect not.” Maul responded.

Maul gestured for the boy to follow, and while he took a moment to weigh his options, Skywalker ultimately decided to come along.

Maul’s double-bladed lightsaber was fixed inside the walking-stick handle he had used to feign feebleness before Ezra Bridger, and while he had no reason to portray weakness before this Chosen One, its utility was invaluable amongst the treacherous terrain. As they walked through the paths on Dathomir, though, Maul could feel Skywalker’s gaze fixed on the lightsaber dangling on his belt: the weapon of his late, pathetic rival Kenobi.

It felt strange to carry a relic of Kenobi so close to him, but Maul felt it was more of a trophy: a reminder of the near lifelong enemy he had overcome, and with him the woe that had plagued those years. Or so he had suspected. But now after his confrontation with Kenobi, he had begun to realize that he was but a mean’s to an end. A landmark to guide him to Skywalker. His true obstacle had always been above Maul, ever since he could remember.

Blocking their path rested a tangled bramble of twisted, grotesque thorns. Skywalker turned to Maul, gesturing.

“Looks like its blocked.” The boy pointed out.

“It just needs to be untangled.” Maul told him.

“....Do you have a tool for that?”

“Yes.” Maul said. “ _ You _ .”

The boy gave a look. “Excuse me?”

“Untangle the bramble.” Maul said cooly.

“Isn’t there another way?” Skywalker looked back at the bramble, disbelief.

“Would you like to walk all the way back to the vessel?”

“...No.” Skywalker gave a deep sigh, before turning and starting to feel out the bramble. Examining the best place to start, which was no place in particular, he began pulling at it as carefully as he could.

It wasn’t long before he cut his hand on a thorn or three, and as quickly as he pulled a vine out several more would tangle themselves even deeper. 

“These are like metal wire.” Skywalker complained.

With a final tug, the brambles vines wrapped itself around Skywalker’s arms. Thorns biting into his skin, he cried out. 

“ _ Help!” _ He cried.

Pulling and tugging himself, Maul channeled The Force onto the vines circling Skywalker’s arms and gripped them, pulling them harshly off his arms, cutting gashes into his arms as they pull off. Crying in pain, the boy fell back, blood dripping from several cuts on his arms, eyeing the bramble suspiciously, an eerie dread falling over him.

“This place gives me the creeps.” Skywalker said cautiously.

“Dathomir is a world strong in The Dark Side, and magicks run deeper still. You only need fear if you run from it. Do well to embrace it.”

“Well I don’t like it.” The boy said, his youth seeping into his tone.

“And I was lead to believe you wanted to leave that desert world of your’s.”

Skywalker was silent for a moment. “I did. Just...just not like  _ this. _ Not with…” The boy stopped himself from saying more.

Maul perked his head back. “Not with  _ me _ , you mean? You know how long you were deceived and you still show no gratitude to your savior?” 

Anger flared in the boy, an explosive ripple in The Force, and Maul could feel the dark influence of Dathomir immediately set to root. The boy opened the door to his emotions just a crack, but that was all The Dark Side required.

“ _ Savior? _ ” Skywalker almost shouted. “You  _ killed _ the only family I ever had! You’re a monster, not a savior. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Maul stopped in his tracks, turning fully to the boy. Face to face with the sith lord, Skywalker was taken aback, Maul’s piercing yellow gaze locking in his own blue eyes. Taking Kenobi’s lightsaber and lifting it off of his belt with a flourish to properly attract Skywalker’s attention, Maul used the unlit device to gesture towards the boy.

“ _ Yes _ , you did. Do not put your ambition on me, you knew full well what you were doing. In your heart, you were glad I took you.”

Skywalker’s mood darkened. “ _ Don’t _ .”

You mourn your family. A family who deceived and feared you all your life. You felt it yourself. If it was not for the monster that stands before you, your whole life would be under the oppressive ignorance they worked so hard to chain you with.” “I would butcher those pathetic farmers a hundred times over if it meant freeing you.” Maul smiled slightly, knowing his harsh words filled Skywalker with growing hate. “Your grief is a weakness, and your hate is a strength. Embrace it, and you can avenge what you think you have lost.”

In a flash, Maul ignited Kenobi’s lightsaber, the sudden ignition startling Skywalker at the peak of Maul’s provocation. In a blue flash, Maul cut through the bramble and thorns that the boy had struggled to pierce. Holding the blue lightsaber before Skywalker ignited, he could see the boy’s eyes run up and down the blade, heart still fresh with hate internalizing the power of the weapon.

“Now come, this  _ monster _ that butchered those liars you mourn is not done with you yet.”

Maul turned off Kenobi’s lightsaber, clipping it back on his belt, Skywalker’s scheming eyes following is all the way down to where it dangled. After a moment, the boy scowled at Maul.

“You’ll pay for what you did.” He said.

Maul was amused. “I have no doubt. Now come, we still have a ways to go.”

The pair continued their march to Maul’s refuge, and Maul could feel a dark hate fill deeper in Skywalker, the zabrak’s words echoing with each step, down into the grim heart of Dathomir and back up to the boy with compounded darkness. Each step, the blood from the thorn cuts falling from Skywalker’s arms and feeding Dathomir’s likewise colored soil. And each step, did Kenobi’s lightsaber swing to and fro on Maul’s belt, the singular obsession of Young Skywalker’s gaze.

Maul smiled.

Their journey was taking longer than Skywalker thought, Maul knew. Across the rigorous terrain, a danger in its own right, and twisting long paths, he was growing ragged: his breath wheezing, his feet beginning to wear, insects too big by half buzzing by his head, sweat slowly running into his eyes, and his cuts stinging more and more.

In reality, the journey could have been completed in a fraction of the time it had taken so far, but Maul had chosen to take looping paths and twisting routes instead of a more straightforward affair. He wanted to test Skywalker’s endurance and resilience, albeit on a scale much smaller than what would come to pass, with his main interest in letting the silent, prodding hike grating on the boy more and more and allowing the seeds of hate to fester and grow. Across this journey, he would drift closer and closer to that breaking point Maul had anticipated. 

In truth, Skywalker had more resolve than Maul had initially given him credit for, but he was young. He would break. Dathomir would eat at his mind as long as it took.

“How long...is this...gonna take?” Skywalker heaved.

“Oh, you wanted to get there immediately, did you? Right across there, then.” Maul gestured to the other side of the ravine they had been walking alongside for roughly a quarter-hour.

Skywalker wiped sweat from his brow, staring at Maul. “Its been across there all this time? Why have we been hiking  _ so long _ then?”

“I was merely waiting for you to ask.” Maul teased.

The boy glared with dark anger in his eyes, clearly not happy with their unpleasant hike, nor endeared to Maul’s continuing jabs.

“ _ Well. _ ” Skywalker spat, his tone filled with edge. “Is there a  _ bridge _ ?” 

Maul barely gave a lazy glance across the ravine. “There doesn’t seem to be.”

“Then how are we getting across?”

“I suppose we will make a bridge.” Maul said. “One of the fallen rocks will do.”

The boy looked towards the long boulder Maul gestured to with a motion of his head. Still recovering from the hike up to this point, young Skywalker sighed incredulously. 

“How is  _ that _ getting across the gap? It must weigh a  _ ton _ .”

“You best get to it then.” Maul suggested.

“Are you going to help?”

“We shall see.”

Skywalker stared for a moment, before cursing and storming off to the large rock. Tugging and pushing with the energy he had left, it became instantly clear to the boy that there would be no moving the boulder.

Turning to Maul, the boy flung his arms in an exacerbated gesture. “ _ See? _ ”

Maul lifted one of his hands, using it to visually guide his mind towards the boulder. Reaching out with The Force, and deep within Dathomir, the energies of the cosmos surrounded the boulder in its tight grip. Slowly, surely, The Force under subserviently lifted the large rock from the surface. It was not without effort though, and took Maul’s focus to channel.

Young Skywalker gazed at Maul, not understanding, before looking back at the boulder to see what he was looking at. The tension dropped in the boy, filled instead by awe and wonder. As Skywalker’s eyes followed the floating boulder, Maul controlled its slow descent across the ravine, before finally releasing his grip on The Force when it was in appropriate position, dropping in as a bridge with a solid shake of the ground.

Maul regained his composure, and Skywalker turned to him, a thousand questions of wonder in his eyes. “How could you...did you...did you lift  _ that _ ?”

“I did.” Maul said plainly.

“ _ How _ ?”

“Through The Dark Side, I have the power to do a great many things, young one.”

“Thats... _ incredible _ .” Skywalker looked back to the ravine. “You...you can teach me to do that?”

“Far more than petty tricks such as  _ that _ .  _ Far _ more.” Maul lifted his head. “You can feel the power here, can you not? It fuels your hate. Relish in it, and the power will be your’s. The power your family  _ feared _ in you.”

Maul’s well placed reminder of his dead Uncle and Aunt drove the wonder out of Skywalker in an instant, and replaced it with envy. With hate.

“Lets just get on with it.” The boy mumbled, making his way to the newly formed stone bridge.

Maul followed now, waiting for Skywalker to make his way across the admittley dangerous bridge before crossing himself. It seemed the boy was too busy fuming to give the path any caution though, blinded to the risk by his anger. 

Now across, the pair were in the red stretch that laid before Maul’s hideout, one could almost even see ship from there. Before them rested the ruined gaping mouth of the Nightsister temple, even now filled with ancient secrets and magicks.

“Is that supposed to be a temple?” The boy asked.

“It used to be.” Maul said. “It is where my...family once lived.”

Skywalker looked to Maul, surprise on his face. “You had a family here?”

“I did. They were connected with The Force, such as I am. Such as you are.”

“Then where are they?”

Maul scowled for a moment. “They were...destroyed. Long ago, now.”

Skywalker didn't know what to say. 

“Come.” Maul broke the silence. “We’ve journeyed far to get here, an exhausting walk. Its left me  _ weak _ , I must sit a moment, I advise you do the same.” 

Maul feigned fatigue as he slowly walked over to a nearby rock, unclasped Kenobi’s lightsaber dangling from his belt and rested it on there as he moved forward to a twisted stump to sit. The Jedi lightsaber sat behind Maul, as did young Skywalker. An innocent mistake, if it were a mistake, but instead this was a test. A test Maul hoped Skywalker would not fail.

The boy noticed it, Maul had no doubt, he could feel a bubble of surprise and anticipation rise up in him, and the slow beats of anxiety beating faster and faster as the resentment and anger he had been seething on grew to The Dark Side’s hungry delight.

As Maul began to sit, he let a comment out to the boy. “Had you mentioned it earlier, I could have brought us here sooner. We could have even bypassed the bramble that you insisted on cutting your arms on.”

Skywalker’s hate had come to a boiling point, surging, Dathomir feeding it. The boy’s gaze landed on the lightsaber of Kenobi...off of Maul’s belt. In the open, behind Maul’s back. The sith lord could feel the anxiety, the hate, the anticipation brewing inside Skywalker. Moment after moment passed as it brewed in deliberation. His presence in The Force growing erratic, and the zabrak could not help but match the boy’s anticipation. Maul would not allow this crucial catalyst to fizzle.

“Your family had rather died than to let you fulfill your destiny. Rather die than tell you of your father.  _ Pathetic. _ ”

That final cheap prod is what finally broke Skywalker.

Skywalker grabbed Kenobi’s lightsaber, ignited its blue blade and ran screaming with the weapon raised towards Maul’s back, in one blind rage fueled movement.

Just as Skywalker went to swing down the lightsaber, Maul unsheathed his own lightsaber from its walking stick handle and ignited a singular crimson blade to casually block the incoming strike.

A crash of blue light smashed against the humming crimson, Maul smiling a gruesome grin as Skywalker’s eyes filled with surprise, then fear, then conviction on the path he had chosen.

“You would strike your master in the back?” Maul asked.

“You’re not my master!” Skywalker said, pushing his weight into the locked blades.

Maul pushed back, easily twisting the locked blades to his favor, gaining leverage to push Skywalker back. If he wanted, he could easily twist the blades to lop off the boy’s hand.

Instead, Maul pushed his weight into the lock, making Skywalker stumble back on a root and fall. Skywalker looked up, the humility reigniting his murderous, dark hate and bounced back to his feet.

Maul turned off his lightsaber, confident that he could simply dodge the strikes. And he was correct, Skywalker had enthusiasm and let anger guide his heavy strikes, but his form was atrocious. His grip was too tight by three fold, the weight behind his swings leaving him stumbling over himself, his stance wide and open. Each time the boy swung the blue glowing lightsaber with a heavy buzz, there were a hundred ways Maul could kill him, and a thousand more to maim him.

Dark laughter filling the air, Maul taunted Skywalker. “Come now, I am right here. Right  _ here _ . Take out your anger on me, your  _ hate _ ! Avenge your family, kill the monster before you!”

Skywalker yelled again, swinging more and more wildly. Maul stopped stepping out of the way of the blows, opening himself up for an easy strike.

“ _ Strike me down _ !” Maul commanded.

As the boy swung down the lightsaber, a small jagged rock was gripped by Maul’s dark embrace and flung through the air with The Force, hitting Skywalker’s head with a solid thud. Crying out, he stumbled once more, missing as blood began to run down his temple.

Maul laughed again. The hate pulsating through Skywalker was nigh-intoxicating, he had to stop himself from being completely lost in it. Standing still to be struck again, this time Maul ignited a singular crimson blade again just in time to block the attack. Easily blocking each strike.

“Is that all you have? Go on, give in, give in to the darkness you feel, allow Dathomir to wrap you in its embrace, let it fuel your strikes. Hate me, kill me!” Maul shouted.

Blocking again and again, each strike became more and more violent, the boy was clearly giving himself to the darkness, the blows becoming more powerful. In fact, the strength behind the violent blows began to surprise Maul, and while no problem to stop, he had had enough of this all.

“ _ Just die!” _ Skywalker shouted.

Clearly exhausted between these restless attacks and the journey before, Skywalker was even sloppier than he started, and Maul dipped to the left as the boy swung a last, heavy strike and stumbled forward when Maul’s lightsaber was not there to meet it. Swinging his own crimson lightsaber, Maul knocked the blade aside, sending Skywalker reeling. Turning off his own lightsaber once more, Maul tapped into The Force to channel around Skywalker, gripping his entire body tight.

“See that you are completely powerless before the power of The Dark Side. Before  _ my  _ power.”

Skywalker’s eyes slowly filled with fear as he realized an invisible energy kept him from moving, and even quicker when his own hand tightly gripping Kenobi’s lightsaber slowly crept closer and closer towards his face. Illuminated by the blue light, sweat and blood were lit as the heat of the blade inched closer and closer to his face, the boy’s eyes darting desperately, unable to control even his own body. Fear was completely consuming the boy, until the lightsaber was close enough that an inch closer would burn off his face. And with that, Maul released Skywalker from his grip and pulled the lightsaber harshly out of his grasp and toward’s his, Kenobi’s weapon turning off as it flung through the air and landing squarely in Maul’s hand.

Exhaustion, pain and dread saw the boy fall to his hands and knees as he was released from Maul’s invisible grip. Panting, Skywalker looked up, terror in his eyes, his anger dwarfed by the primal anxiety of being powerless to The Force.

“You have potential.” Maul admitted. “But you are unrefined.”

His horned silhouette stared down at Skywalker, hungry yellow eyes staring down. The boy was broken, now. Broken into bare clay in Maul’s hand, begging to be crafted into the great work he was destined to become.

“You have  _ great _ potential, in fact.” Maul revised. “Greater than most. Though your grief distracts you from the true path. It is your weakness. Your crutch. You must focus instead on your fear. Your anger. Your hate, your pain. Let these things flow through you, and to consume you. Your  _ father _ was a great warrior, known to many for his power in The Force. Now, you are powerless. But only through me, can you change that.  _ We _ can change that, together.”

Skywalker rubbed the blood from his face. “You can...you can teach me this? To follow my father’s path?”

“Did you feel The Dark Side running through you?” Maul asked.

“I...I did. It...consumed me.” 

“Do you  _ crave _ my power?” Maul edged closer.

“I...I know that I shouldn’t. But...I  _ do _ .” Skywalker admitted.

“Do you wish to fulfill your destiny?”

“I  _ do _ .”

“Do you want me to grant you power and knowledge beyond your deepest desires? To become the man your father wanted you to be?”

“ _ Yes _ . I do.” Hunger filled the boy’s blue eyes.

“Do you wish to become  _ Sith _ ? To learn the ways of The Dark Side?”

“I...do, whatever a sith is.”

“Then do you pledge yourself to me and only me as my apprentice, and to honor my teachings?” Maul’s voice was filled with anticipation.

Skywalker was quiet for a long moment, his emotions in great conflict. Eventually, the desperate taste for more of what he felt, the envy of Maul’s might, the thirst for his father’s legacy, those were the things that won above any virtue or principle the boy may have been clinging on to.

“Yes,  _ master _ .”

“Then rise,  _ Darth Starkiller.” _


	4. Reach Out

**Part 4: Reach Out** ****

**1 BBY.**

**Dathomir.**

**Noon.**

Power was useless if you did not know how to use it. Such was the case with Skywalker, no,  _ Starkiller _ , as his power yet remained. Like unrefined spice, it had much potential: medicine, narcotics, and explosives still. Likewise Starkiller’s potential was equally varied and dangerous. 

_ Darth Starkiller _ , a newly gifted moniker to the young Skywalker, it barely seemed to fit. Though Maul knew it was important to dub his apprentice, and to rebuild him as early as he could, it presently fit as well as it would on a lothcat. It was one thing to be  _ named _ darth, lord of the sith, but it was an entirely different venture to hold its weight. The boy knew nothing of the sith or their ways, the ways of the ancient order that had destroyed Maul’s life.

_ No _ , he had to remind himself. Such misguided blame is what had made him lost in the first place. It was not the sith in which Maul’s life had been destroyed by, no, the opposite: it was the sith that taught him the virtues of power, cunning, and the wisdom that lay beyond the shadows. It was the sith that stood against the disgustingly dogmatic Jedi and their equally pitiful Republic. And so too was it the sith that had a legacy built upon a thousand years that was Maul’s inheritance by right. It was not the sith that had devastated his former life, he had realized after being set back on the path, after finding his true apprentice. No.

It was his master.  _ The  _ master. 

“ _ Master _ ?” Skywalker, newly made Starkiller, asked.

The word rang deep into Maul’s thoughts on the very subject, and he pushed the memories of his master deep back into the ash-ridden darkness in himself, and let his hatred wrap its embrace around it.

It was true, the boy was no sith. But that would change. No matter how long it took. For that was both of their destiny, for Skywalker to become Darth Starkiller, and Maul to become  _ master _ to a sith most powerful. To take from Kenobi his purpose, and even more, to take from Maul’s former master what had been denied him for years and years: his rightful inheritance, the legacy of Bane, the Dark Lord of the Sith.

“Again.” Maul said, composing himself from his thoughts.

Skywalker wiped sweat from his brow, his breath heavy. “ _ Again _ ?” He asked incredulously.

It had been since the break of dawn they had been sparring, and his newly made apprentice had improved little. But not without hope. What he had lacked in skill, he more than made up for in spirit. Maul had made no waste of the residual pool of hatred that he had tapped in Skywalker, a pool of immense power. Now he needed to refine it.

“As long as it takes for you to improve.” Maul said. Raising his crimson lightsaber, a single blade ignited, he gestured for Skywalker to approach.

With a shake of his head and a heavy sigh, Skywalker raised the blue blade of Kenobi and rushed at Maul.

The weapon of Kenobi, in whose cold robes Maul took it from. In the hands of his apprentice though, it was little more than a wagging laser stick. 

Skywalker swung the lightsaber at Maul, who raised his own weapon to block the strike. His apprentice’s form was still unrefined: his swings far too open, but at least he was not blinded in hate, but drawing from it.

Another strike, and another block. Another, and another still.

“You hold the lightsaber too tightly.” Maul critiqued. Stepping away from a strike, the legs of Skywalker were too widely set and one twisted behind another as he tried pivoting. Kicking one of the legs, Maul sent Skywalker toppling on his back.

“And your footwork leaves much to be desired.”

Looking up at him, Skywalker shot bitter sarcasm. “You don’t say.”

Maul gazed coldly down at him, his stature straight. “Again.” He said in his quiet, sharp voice. “And this time, keep your stance low and firm. Never cross your legs. Now let us begin.”

Rising, as he did many dozens of times already, Skywalker looked Maul up and down, made sense of it to himself and nodded, coming at Maul again. And there it was, as he struck without merit he never crossed his feet as he pivoted to match a circling Maul. While his apprentice had much,  _ much _ to learn, he had a  _ desire _ to learn.

Stepping away, ducking casually and swatting away the strikes, Maul continued to analyze Skywalker. Breathing heavily, his strikes had become erratic. 

“Control your breathing, Starkiller. One breath for one strike.”

“One...breath...one strike” Skywalker repeated to himself. Falling into more rhythmic movements, Skywalker struck high, then low, high and low. Too rhythmic: he understood, but lacked the feeling, the flow.

As his apprentice went to strike again, Maul gripped a red-dusted rock with The Force, flinging it across the air to hit him squarely in the lower back. Recoiling in pain, Skywalker arched backwards, and Maul kicked him in the chest and sent him on his back again.

“Again.” Maul said.

Regaining his breath, Skywalker looked cross up at him. “ _ How _ ?” He said. “How am I supposed to deal with  _ that _ ?”

Maul tilted his head, feigning ignorance. “With what?”

“You know  _ what _ . That thing you can do.”

“The Force.” Maul said, circling him with his blade pointed down. “I can wield its power, and so can you. You have.”

“On...Tatooine? When…” 

“When I slew your family, yes.” Maul put bluntly.

Skywalker looked coldly up at him.

“Your powers emerged in an act of raw, instinctual hate.” Maul continued. “But it manifests in more than just one way...feelings, intuition. Premonition. And more still from the power of the dark side. The Force exists all around you, all you need is to reach out to it. _ Again _ .”

This time, Maul’s young apprentice had his breathing steady, stance low, and could feel the hate bubbling inside of him.

And as hundreds of strikes before, Skywalker swung down the blue lightsaber down upon Maul’s single crimson blade. High, high, low, high and low again. 

“Reach into your hate.” Maul said. “Draw from its power. Let it strengthen your resolve, your strikes. Let your hate spread to the world, and let the world guide you in turn.”

Using The Force, Maul flung another rock across the air at Skywalker: hitting him in the shoulder this time it staggered his form, or rather what passed for one, as Maul turned the opening into an offensive. Too long in this sparring he had allowed his apprentice to swat at his defense to no avail. Perhaps it was this false sense of safety that held Skywalker back, but now he would have no choice but to reach into The Dark Side, to listen to it. To feel it.

Maul’s advance was almost too fast for Skywalker to keep up with, and so he became even quicker. His apprentice began to fumble with the lightsaber he held to the most basic attacks Maul was giving.

“ _ Listen _ .” Maul commanded. “To Dathomir, to The Dark Side.”

“I’m….” Skywalker began, equal parts exhaustion and frustration in his voice. “ _ Trying _ ! I can’t  _ hear _ it!”

It is not a voice, but a feeling. A feeling so easily dismissed, but one you  _ must _ hold onto if you are to survive at all. I know that it is in you, but it cannot aid you if you do not let it. Do not fight.”

“Isn’t that what….we’re doing?” Skywalker responded.

“The  _ feeling” _ , Maul sighed. " _ The Force _ . Do not fight  _ it _ . Let it wrap itself around you, your mind resists it when all you need do is purge your toiling thoughts. Purge them with your  _ hate _ , Darth Starkiller, and when your mind is clear, you will truly be able to move in unison with The Force.”

Maul slowed his attacks...not by much, but enough to give his apprentice the reprieve to focus his mind on The Force, to tap into his hate: that dark, rich well inside of him that Skywalker was fighting to keep shut.

He saw Skywalker’s face, lit with the blue hum of the saber, painted with sweat and angst, twisted in exhaustion slowly go to ease: his blue eyes filled with resolve, and focus.

Another rock flung through the air at Maul’s behest, sharply towards his apprentice’s head.

Suddenly, Skywalker pivoted away from Maul’s strike, and sliced at the rock he had known was coming. Maul took a moment from his strikes to appreciate the moment. And so did his apprentice.

One breath for one strike, grip firm, stance low, focused with hate: Skywalker turned from his triumph to advance on Maul.

High, low, high, high.

He could begin to anticipate where Maul would block, and where he would strike back: he was filled with boiling anticipation as his attacks grew faster, more fluid with each strike as he gave himself more and more into listening to the dark, flowing with Dathomir’s energies. 

And so too did his apprentice know where Maul would be open, unguarded by his blade. After another high strike, Skywalker twisted and swung the blue saber low to strike at Maul’s side. Maul could feel the peak of anticipation in his apprentice...a perfect opening.

Until it wasn’t.

Igniting the second of his crimson blades, the backside of his dual-bladed lightsaber emitted just in time to block the attack.

Eyes widening as the realization hit him, Skywalker staggered back: too much weight into the blocked attack, Maul twisted his lightsaber and used the bottom blade to swat aside the blue lightsaber, leaving his apprentice open.

Twisting downwards, Maul kicked upward into Skywalker’s chest, sending him onto his back.

His apprentice wiped sweat from his brow, and the red dust of Dathomir, staring up at the horned figure of Maul. He couldn’t help from smiling, it seemed.

“I did it...I knew that rock was coming, I just...felt it.” Skywalker said.

“So you did.” Maul replied.

“And I almost got you there!”

“You did not.” Maul corrected. “You failed to recognize the hidden. To defeat your enemy, you must know what secrets they bring into battle.”

“And now I know your’s.”

“That one, at least.” Maul said. “Again?”

“ _ Again _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy! As with my writing speed, you no doubt can deduce that this will be the chapter to put a lid on 2020, what a year! Going into 2021 I'm very excited for the ideas that I have for this story, and I have plans to tell a complete story, albeit my release speed will not be as often as I'd like with work and life obligations. 
> 
> I have a whole outline plotted out with a lot of (personally biased ofc) cool stuff. When its all said and done it'll probably be the length of an actual book. There will be 3 "acts" as it were, and we are still early into Act I. After that (though it will be a good bit into 2021) I have concrete ideas for more Star Wars stories, and in the further future at some point I'd like to explore A Song of Ice and Fire and Assassin's Creed (two other properties in which I am a fan of whose universes are ripe), but for the long foreseeable future I still have loads and loads to explore in Star Wars! Not only as a huge Star Wars fan, but its universe lends itself to short, medium and long form stories in greater versatility (for my style of stories at least) than the others that may apply to only one length type.
> 
> If you have any thoughts or opinions so far in the early stages of the story, I'd be interested in hearing them. 
> 
> Writing this has helped me rediscover my excitement for writing, I have never written fanfic before and have found it very fun, and I hope you've enjoyed reading so far, and I hope you continue to into 2021! Happy New Year!
> 
> ~ Toodlebot


	5. Crags and Pits

**Part 5: Crags and Pits**

**1 BBY.**

**Dathomir.**

**Dusk.**

Anticipating a stone was one thing, a thing in which Maul’s apprentice proved adept at, but anticipating a blaster bolt was entirely different.

“Do not recoil from it.” Maul commanded. “Stand firm.”

“That's easy for you to say!” Skywalker shouted back.

Maul had set up one of his old recon droids, and while it had seen many better years it did its job well enough: floating in place and firing bolts off at random intervals.

A heated red blaster bolt shot through the air, whizzing past Skywalker’s head, who weaved just in time.

“And that one almost hit me!”

“Then hit _back_.” Maul raised his head at him. “It is no more difficult than the stones.”

“They’re a lot faster, for one thing!”

“Your fear controls you.” Maul said. “It clouds your connection to The Dark Side.”

Skywalker attempted to swing the blue lightsaber at the next bolt, too early by a heartbeat.

The bolt landed firmly in the meat of his shoulder, searing and digging deep into his flesh. He cried out in pain, seemingly not used to being struck by live blaster bolts.

“Those are _real_?” Skywalker screamed in disbelief, clutching his shoulder.

“Of course.” Maul said plainly. “You will not learn anything if there is no fear of failure.”

“I thought you said fear was a bad thing.” His apprentice huffed.

“You mustn't let your fear control _you_ . And you mustn't merely control it. You must _dominate_ your fear, channel it as energy, fuel for your hate.”

Bolt after bolt whizzed through the air, Skywalker resorting to dodging and swinging wildly. It was embarrassing, to be sure, the recon droid was rusted half to rot.

Finally, his apprentice swung the humming blue blade, colliding with a red blaster bolt, sending it off in a wild direction. While the precision, and perhaps _intent_ given the ignorance of his swings, left much to be desired Maul could not deny that the boy had succeeded in the first of many deflections.

The milestone was not lost on his apprentice either, turning from the droid.

“That was _incredible_ .” He said. “Deflecting a _blaster bolt_ , that's not something people can just _do_. But I did, I kind of...felt where it was coming from, and -”

The droid fired off another bolt, which would certainly hit Skywalker in the square of his unguarded back, burning through his body and several vital organs in the process. The boy turned his head to react, but not his body, realizing at once that he should never have let his attention wander.

Reaching out, Maul knew the path where the blaster bolt would travel, but with a movement of his hand he pushed it aside, to instead burn through a dusted boulder.

He disabled the droid then, and his apprentice looked at him in awe. “Did you…” He began. “You just swatted it away! Thats impossible!”

“Clearly not.” Maul responded. “But what _is_ impossible is to live from what the blaster bolt would have done to you. _Never_ let your guard down, Darth Starkiller. Not even after victory. Am I clear?”

His apprentice lowered his gaze, turning off the lightsaber. “Yes... _master_.”

Maul nodded. “Good. Then come. The Dathomiri night will chill you.”

He turned, leaving Skywalker still clutching his wound, knowing he would follow.

And he did.

Skywalker was still resistant to Maul, but his stubborn edges were weathered and smoothed by the day. Training aside: near constant sermons about how his family had far from his best interests at heart never failed to ignite new hate in the boy, that in turn pulled him deeper into the intoxicating Dark Side aura of Dathomir. But one out of a hundred words stuck deep in his apprentice, words that hit too close to truth, words that made Skywalker _doubt_.

What's more is that he seemed to not enjoy calling Maul _master_ , but a few harsh words and fewer sharp reminders saw the boy catch on. Likewise he did not understand why he was being called Darth Starkiller. 

Just once, the boy dared to contradict Maul. 

“My name is _Luke_!” He had snapped.

Maul looked deeply into the boy’s eyes with his hard, yellow gaze. Slow step by step towards Skywalker, he stopped just in front of him. Too close for the boy’s comfort, he had gone to step back, but Maul placed his hand on his shoulder to hold him still. A gentle touch, but it was more than physical: Maul let his apprentice know his own darkness, _feel_ it.

Calmly, politely even, Maul finally spoke after a long moment of silent knowing.

“You are Darth Starkiller. And I am your master.” Maul said. “Nothing less.”

After then, the matter of the title bestowed upon Skywalker had not been brought up, but Maul could feel the unease and uncertainty in the boy whenever he called him such.

The pair were closing in on the ruined Nightsister Coven, which once housed witches with forgotten magicks that Maul would have liked to add to his power. 

He knew that his apprentice had been curious about the temple, as they trained and camped in its shadow. For the past few days, Maul had stopped where they were now and camped for the night, not wanting another to step foot not in the temple, but his lair that lay within. But for some reason, without thought, Maul kept walking, and his apprentice kept following.

Though where Maul paid no mind to the trip, he could feel Skywalker’s hesitation. He had not been deeply trained to feel what had once, and perhaps still, dwelt there, but even he could feel the aura within.

“.... _Master._ ” His apprentice said, finally gaining Maul’s attention. “I need to tend to my wound in the camp.”

Maul scoffed. “An injury that is not fatal is nothing but a distraction. In fact, you should welcome the chance to more acutely focus on your pain. You would be surprised what _pain_ can teach you.”

His greatest teacher of all.

“Why are you bringing me in here?” Skywalker said, looking around the dark chambers, staying closer to Maul than he realized.

“So you may see. So you may learn.”

What were the ruins of the coven opened up into Maul’s lair: a place where he gathered fragments of his trials and victories, his tools and secrets, his artifacts and treasures. To an ignorant eye, one might call it _junk_ , but Maul knew their purpose. He knew, each and every delicate purpose. 

The jetpack of one of the Mandalorians who had fallen in battle for his name and to honor the glory of his power...the identity of the wearer unknown and not cared to be known by Maul. 

A tuft of hair, pulled from one of the corpses of the innocent he and his brother Savage had gloriously slaughtered on Raydonia so long ago, barely a memory, in order to strike at the resolve of the Jedi...at _Kenobi_. The entire Outer Rim would fear those brothers Sith afterwards.

And of course, _of course_ , the portrait of _Duchess Satine_ , that woman that had loved Kenobi so. And who Kenobi loved in turn. A hypocrite, so clearly attached to his _pathetic_ Duchess. But what's more is that he couldn’t even admit it, he _pretended_ to be superior to Maul, to be _above_ the loss. Pretending to Maul, and pretending to himself. Kenobi had no idea what loss was. When Maul looked into his brother’s eyes for the last time, the hate that came after was not... _weakness_ as Kenobi would claim. It was strength.

So Maul slashed away at her visage with the darksaber he once held, so there may be _no_ denial of her fate, so that he may know the pleasure to kill Kenobi’s _pathetic_ duchess once more.

“Wow.” Skywalker said, laying his bare hand on one of those many such shrines Maul had erected: this one in particular showcasing the head of one of the old battle droids. Remembering The Clone War, in which Maul had once believed he was crucial to, would later find that it started and almost ended without him. 

“ _Don’t touch that_ !” Maul snapped, pulled back from his thoughts. “Do not touch _anything_. These are our memories, secrets, fragile things. To gaze and remember, not touch and...I keep them to...remember where I came from. I mustn’t lose sight...” 

Maul had a habit of trailing off, lost in the fogs of his mind. Those dark crags and ashen pits. 

But as he trained his new apprentice more and more, Maul thought less of the past and more of the _future_ . For once, there was something to look forward to, not get trapped in silent dwelling. Finally, once more, there was something for him to _plan_. And what a plan it was.

His apprentice, clearly, had not followed his command of not touching his artifacts and treasures. But when Maul turned to scold him again, he saw that his apprentice was not _dismissive_ of his treasures unlike some, but... _appreciative_ of the significance that they held.

“It's an old B1 model, from The Clone War.” Skywalker said, the pain from his wound seemingly a distraction no more. “I’ve seen scraps from some of the jawa bands, but never anything so....maintained.”

“I was meant to lead _armies_ of those.” Maul said, almost wistfully.

“You fought for The Separatists?”

“ _No_ .” Maul scoffed, half a laugh. “They were the only ones to act, The Republic was rotting before the galaxy’s eyes, but their foolish idealism was all too easily manipulated, _years_ in the making. No, I fought for neither side but my own. My power was immense, and I almost brought an end to the war myself, if it wasn’t for....”

Glimpses. _Memories_ . An apprentice that would never be, who would rather die in vain than accept him and his truth. And before that still, a smirking terror that took the life of his apprentice that should never have been. No, not an apprentice, a _brother_. A brother who died in vain.

Maul pushed the memories of all that occurred on Mandalore inside himself yet again. Over the dark crags, and deep into the ashen pits.

“My Uncle Owen would say that The Rep-” The boy began, continuing to intently fiddle and examine the disembodied Battledroid head.

“Nevermind what your dead Uncle said.” Maul spat, perhaps too harshly. 

Skywalker was withdrawn now in that silent bitterness of his, but anticipation stirred in him.

“You said my _father_ fought in The Clone War?”

Now that he was out of his mind, Maul found he could control the situation far better. A plan unraveled before him, from this perfect opportunity before him. Plans did not need to be galactic, manipulation was useful down to the single person. Especially one so ripe.

“Anakin Skywalker. A champion of The Republic. _The Hero With No Fear._ ” Maul began, pride swelling in his apprentice. “A Jedi, like Kenobi. But The Republic fell, and the Jedi turned against him.”

“ _What_?” Skywalker asked. “The Jedi were the heroes of The Old Republic, they wouldn’t turn against one of their own!”

“But they did.” Maul said, as if there was no rebuttal. “Because he saw through them, and became something more. Your father saw that the Jedi all around him were holding him back, holding the _galaxy_ back. He meant to become _Sith._ And for that, the Jedi murdered him.”

Skywalker went silent. Doubt was turning within him, but melancholy took over as he accepted the only truth he had ever known about his father’s fate: that he, a Sith, was killed. By _Jedi_.

“What is…. _Sith_?”

Maul smiled. “An order far older than you or I, my apprentice. Where the Jedi dogma holds one back, where it seeks to control all parts of oneself: even their most private emotions, their most core feelings; the Sith celebrate those as strength. We pursue power, we pursue knowledge, we pursue whatever we please. We bow before the will of none but our own, even The Force bends as we will it: The Dark Side. To be Sith is to honor The Dark Side: to be truly free, to embrace the chaos in you that others fear. To hold yourself to no limits. To reject an oppressive peace in favor of everlasting passion.”

His apprentice pondered the meaning of the words. 

“And at the core lies a simple truth.” Maul continued. “There exists no good in this galaxy. Only the weak, and the strong.

The boy shook his head. 

“I don’t believe that.”

“Then you are a fool.” Maul growled. “A _weak_ fool.”

“Maybe.” Skywalker pouted. “But what good is strength if you don’t help the weak?”

That statement was a travesty to Maul: for all the boy’s promise he was blinded by light. But he would make him see, he would make Skywalker not only embrace the dark side, but embrace the _Sith_.

“The strong help the weak by helping themselves.” Maul countered. “In doing so, they create a standard of power to crave, until the weak reach that power themselves or are destroyed in the attempt. Either way, their chains are broken.”

“What about The Empire?” Skywalker said. “They’re holding down _everyone_. Creating chains, not breaking them. Only The Rebellion can stand up to them.”

“The Rebellion cannot stand up to him.” Maul said at once.

“ _Him_?” Skywalker asked.

Maul had seemingly misspoke. The Galactic Empire was certainly not a _him_ , for that would imply this great spanning universal regime was singular and not spread out across as many stars as it ruled. But, of course, to Maul The Empire _was_ a singular entity. That face seen on every holoscreen in the galaxy, those false holos or old highlighted speeches, that _smile_. But Maul could see, no _feel_ , the cruelty behind the smile of The Emperor. Even at worst, those _fools_ in The Rebellion thought he was a ruthless tyrant, or a puppet ruler for military fascists. But they didn’t know what he _truly_ was. _No one_ knew. 

No one but Maul.

“The Empire.” Maul corrected. “They cannot stand up to The Empire. But _we_ can.”

“We _can_?” Skywalker said.

“To become Sith is to take your destiny, and the destiny of the galaxy, into your own hands.” Maul began. “While The Rebellion, or any other doomed movement may gain any strategic resource or tactical advantage, they too are ultimately at the whims of The Force. Adherent to it, or rather, those rule over it with The Dark Side. And with that power, that power you have felt here, we will have the only ally we will ever need to destroy The Empire.”

Skywalker thought for a moment, and Maul could sense his feelings twisting at each other. Lust for the power, _shame_ in turn for wanting it. Realization, that this thing, this _Dark Side_ could be used for the light, and finally _self-certainty_ that he knew that it could. All within a heartbeat, intricate lies crafted to hide the first, truest feeling from his own self: that lust for power.

“We _can_ .” His apprentice had a surge of excitement. “If I learn more…then it will all...it’ll be _worth_ it.” Skywalker trailed off. “I can save _everybody_.”

Maul smiled. He had heard the stories, seen in it his visions, felt it through The Usurper’s companions, and inferred the rest.

“Your father turned to The Dark Side for the same reasons, Darth Starkiller.”

Pride fluxed in his apprentice. No, not merely pride. Familial _. Validation_ . Validation that he was his father’s son. And validation then that he _must_ have chosen correctly, as his father must have once done.

“Why....why do you call me that?” Maul’s apprentice asked. “Darth?”

“Every Sith is reborn in darkness, freed from the chains of their life before. And with it, they bear the name of their new life. The name that they will be remembered for across milenia. _Darth_ , Lord of the Sith. As I named you Darth Starkiller, I once was named Darth Maul.”

“A _lord_ , huh. _Darth Starkiller_.” Skywalker let it sink in, that boy who had grown up on a backwater farm on a backwater planet. “Who named you, then?” He finally said.

“It...it's _not important_ .” Maul snapped, before taking a silent moment to recompose himself. “What _is_ important is not the life you or I had before this one, it is that we have begun our journey towards a greater plan for our destiny.”

“...What plan?”

“To reclaim what was stolen.” Maul said. “As my promised fate was taken from me, your chance at greatness was taken from you. Both by the same man. _Kenobi_.”

The boy rubbed the burn mark where the droid had shot him, the sense of his pain no doubt dulled by greater feelings being stirred.

“Did he...did he know that I had this power? Did he know what happened to my father?” Skywalker went silent, solemn for a long moment. The vulnerable youth rearing its head, desperate for an answer. “Did...my family know?”

Maul nodded. “They did.”

The lord looked into his apprentice, and saw a reflection of his plan: holding a clenched fist in the air. As if he could crush all the ashes of his failures that he needed to experience to reach this summit into a diamond right then and there. “We are going to become the most powerful beings in the galaxy. We will learn the ancient secrets of the dark side, and with that power, we shall bring The Empire to its _knees_ .” He growled. “And it will be _our’s_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of 2021! And more to come yet! Almost done with the Dathomir focused chapters...but what could be after? Stay tuned! I'd love to hear any thoughts or feelings, or hell what you had for breakfast!


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